Method and means for controlling electrical power delivered to a variable impedance load



Q Y 22, 1952 J. w. WILLIAMSON A 2,604,575

METHOD AND MEANS FOR CONTROLLING ELECTRICAL POWER DELIVERED TO A VARIABLE IMPEDANCE LOAD Filed March 50, 1948 Pen 6 TH NCE Patented July 22, 1952 METHOD ANDMEANS FOR CONTROLLING ELECTRICAL POWER DELIVERED TO A VARIABLE IMPEDANCE LOAD James W. Williamson, Cleveland, Ohio, assignor to The Ohio Crankshaft Company, Cleveland,

Ohio

Application March 30, 1948, Serial No. 17,865

This invention pertains to electrical power equipment such as the type used for heating metals or the like by means of alternating electric currents and, more particularly, to a method and means for controlling within any desired range the ratio of electrical power delivered to the article to be heated at the beginning and end of a heating cycle.

In the art of using electric currents, and particularly alternating currents, for the cyclic heating of articles of manufacture both the electrical resistance and reactance of the load on the power source varies considerably during the heating cycle. This variation appears to be caused by a number of factors inherent in the elements of the electrical load circuit. So far as is understood, however, with magnetic materials it appears to be due principally to inherent variable physical and electrical properties of the article being heated as its temperature changes from room temperature through the magnetic range, past the Curie point and into the temperatures required for quench hardening, forging, annealing, melting, welding, or the like. As is known, the article forms a part of the electrical load circuit, being coupled thereto in one manner or another, either inductively, by direct electrical contact or otherwise. The article, of course, forms the loadv to which it is ultimately desired to deliver power. With a constant voltage power source, when the electrical impedance of the load varies, the power delivered to the load also varies. In some installations it has been found that the power demand first increases and then drops quite rapidly to a final value considerably below even the initial power demand. For the types of alternating current power sources conventionally used, 1. e., types having a generally constant voltage output, this variation in load impedance imposes serious problems from a design standpoint. Thus the power source, in order that it will not be unduly overloaded on power demand peaks, must have a rating or size far greater than the average power demand over the entire heating cycle and particularly the power required at the end of the heating cycle. The equipment thus used is inefiicient, and the overall cost thereof is increased without any compensating improvement in performance.

As a solution to the problem, it has been proposed to provide a power source having a remotely controlled variable voltage output which is automatically varied to offset the effect of the circuit impedance variations. Also multitap transformers have been proposed with automatic tap selection to vary the voltage applied to the load as the circuit impedance varies. Such proposals are generally expensive to manufacture, cumbersome to build, and diflicult to successfully adjust for operation in commercial practice.

1 Claim. (Cl. 219-47) In view of the foregoing, it is an object ofthe present invention to provide a new and improved electrical circuit for alternating current electrical heating apparatus wherein the impedance-or the load varies in a known or determinable man: ner during the heating cycle, which circuit is simple and economical, which employs a mini mum number of electrical components which may be fixed in value, which inherently compensates for the variations in the impedance of the load whereby the power delivered to the load is a substantially constant value, and which avoids the drawbacks of the prior art.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a new and improved alternating current electric power circuit having a load, the electrical impedance of which varies over determinable range, the circuit having a fixed reactive com ponent in series with the load so proportioned in electrical value that notwithstanding the impedance variation, the average instantaneous power delivered to the load may be generally constant.

Still another object of the invention is the provision of a new and improved circuit for use in induction heating having a fixed reactance in' series with the load the impedance of which inherently varies during the heating cycle, the fixed reactance having an electrical value such as to provide a substantially constant average electrical power delivered to the article to be heated during the heating cycle without the use of other control means.

Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved method and means of determining the value of a fixed reactor to be placed in an electrical heating circuit whereby the power delivered to the load may be substantially the same or variable through a predetermined range at the beginning and end of the heating cycle.

Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved circuit for induction heating equipment which permits the use of an electrical power source having a minimum power rating in relation to the average power delivered to the load and which avoids the drawback of the prior art.

Another object of the invention is the provision of new and improved alternating current heating equipment having fixed electrical components so proportioned and electricallv connected that the powder delivered to the load at the beginning and end or any other two points of the heating cycle is or may be made to be the same or have any desired ratio.

The invention consists in certain arrangements of parts, electrical circuits, and methods and means of arriving at the proper electrical values for such parts and circuits. a preferred embodiment of which invention will be described'hereim after and is illustrated in the accompanying drawing which is made a part hereof, and where- Fig. 1 is a wiring diagram of a typical induction heating circuit having the inductor coupled to an article to be heated.

Fig. 2 is a diagram similar to Fig. 1 but showing the use of a transformer interposed between the power source and the inductor;

Fig. 3 is an equivalent circuitioi the circuit from the points AA of Fig. l to the load or the article to be heated.

Fig. 4 is a circuit similar to that of Fig. 3 with the electrical elements lumped for the purposes of simplicity.

Fig; 5 is-an induction heating circuit embodying the present I invention;

Fig. 6 is' a -'viewshowing one embodiment" of a graphicalficonstruction by which the valueof thecapacitor of Fig; 5 may be determined so that the power delivered to the load at: the be ginning and endof 1 a heating cycle may have any desired'ratio such asunity or thereabouts.

Fig. is a wiring diagram showing a complete circuit embodying the present invention, the value ofthe reactive elements being as explained herein.

Figure 8 is a graph'of thepower in kilowatts.

absorbed by a typical load plotted against the heating time in seconds showing the results 'obtainable with and without the present'invention.

The invention will be described in conjunction with. induction heating equipment, although. it

willbe appreciated that it is also usable in other electrical fields where the impedance of 'the load varies'iand it is desired to 'levelout theefiects:

of 'suchimpedance variations on thepowen Referring to the drawings; Fig; 1 showsa typical induction heating circuit with alternating electrical. power. at any desired frequency being delivered from. a suitable power" source such-has a motorlgeneraton. vacuum "tube oscillator, or the like'.(not shown), to the :terminals A-A, which power is delivered through electrical conductors: 8, 8 to'an inductor l0 inductively coupled to an article H to be heated of metalor'the like. The inductor lfl'may; take any conventional shape or form so as'to produce the required'heat pattern in the article to be heated. As is conventional with electrical circuits, theload-as viewed by the power source at terminals A--A, r has-an impedance consisting of both reactive and resistive components; which may be conveniently plotted in graphical form suchas that shown in of the -transmission-line or conductors 8 andfi between thepoints AA and theterminals-of the inductor I0; RP represents the resistance associated with 1 R orcopper loss in the inductor,

- and is approximately equalto the resistance of the inductor with the load'removed; XP is approximately equal to RP and representsv the reactance dueto magnetic-fluxwithin the conducting-materialpf-the inductor; X0 represents the reactance associated with .magneticfiux between the-coil-and-load; andRs andXs; represent the resistance and reactance of theload as reflected in the inductor. If a transformer I2 were to be included, as shown in Fig. 2, the resistance and reactance of the transformer should also be represented, although for the purposes of disclosing the present invention, such terms need not be included and will be omitted for the purposes of simplicity. The resistances and reactances shown in Fig. 3 may be lumped into one, as shown in Fig. 4, R1. representing the resistance of the leads, the inductor, and that of the load as reflected through the inductor while X1. represents the reactance of the leads, the inductor and the load, as reflected through the inductor 10.

The power at any time delivered to the load isgenerally equal to E R1 +XZ whereE isthe voltage betweenpoints A-.-A. Dure ing the course of a heating cycle, the metals in-' volved expandor change their shape, vary their resistivity, and in the case of steel loads heated above the critical temperature where the transformation from the magnetic state to the nonmagnetic stateoccurs, the factors RL and X1. may vary and do vary considerably. Such'variations cause the power delivered to and consumed by the load to vary over a rather wide range, these variations being representedby changes in the total current and the phase relationship of this current to theapplied voltage.

The present invention contemplates utilizing these changes to effect thedesired objects.

In thepreferred embodiment shown, a reactor M is connected in-series with the conductor. or lead 8. The electrical value-of this reactor is quite critical and must-be carefully chosen for each installation and-for each set up if the desired result are to be obtained. Broadly speaking,

the reactor M has an electrical value such that for a particular inductor and article, the component of the total current in phase with the voltage will have a value in relation to the resistance of theload that the IZRL, i. e., the actual power delivered to the-load, will-be the same for any twopredetermined points or instances in the heating cycle. Stated otherwise the ratio of the power at these points will have a l-l ratio. It will be appreciated that, upon an understanding of the method to be described, ratios of other than 1-1 can be obtained if desired. The reactor M has a function all of its own and will be in addition to any reactor as now normally provided for adjusting the power factor of the load as viewed by the power source and in addition to any series reactors now provided for the purpose of balancing the internal reactance of the generator.

In mostinduction heating circuits for articles made of materials having magnetic properties which are being heatedfrom a generally constant voltage power source, the power first increases very rapidly due to an increase in resistance of the load and a somewhatsmaller non-compensating increase in reactance. Subsequently and particularly as the article being heated reaches-a temperature where its magnetic properties change and disappear, the power drops off radically to a value considerably less than the initial value due to a decrease of the resistance. Non-magnetic materials generally show a continuously increasing power.

The predetermined points referred to in the paragraph above may be selected from any two points in the heating cycle. For. most installations, it is preferred to select the impedance at the point of maximum power and the impedance at the point of minimum power, which is normally at the end of the heating cycle. A point before or after the maximum power is reached could also be used.

For the purposes of explaining this invention, the impedances at the beginning andendof the heating cycle only will be referred to. For most accurate control, of course, the value of the reactor M should be chosen on the basis of the impedanceat the point of maximum power.

Also for the purposes of explaining this invention, it will be assumed that the factors RL and XL vary in a constant linear relationship, with respect to each other, that is, when the loci of the resistances and reactances are plotted on a resistance-reactance graph from the beginning to the end of a heating cycle, the loci may be represented as a straight line. It will be appreciated that in actual practice the loci is not a straight line, but it has been found that the variations do not materially aifect the results which this invention contemplates. So long as the power delivered to the load is the same at the beginning and end of the heating cycle, the power delivered during the entire course of the heating cycle will generally remain substantially constant.

Referring now to the graph shown in Fig. 6, the reactive components of the load are shown plotted on the vertical axis and the resistive components are shown plotted on a horizontal axis, unit distances representing any desired and predeter mined values of reactance and resistance. The origin is shown marked 0. The point ZP represents the loci of the resistive and reactive components at the beginning of the heating cycle; the point ZQ represents the loci of the resistive and reactive components at the end of the heating cycle; and the line ZP-Z represents the loci of the resistive and reactive components at any given time in the course of the heating cycle. As stated previously, this is assumed for the purposes of illustration to be a straight line. In actual practice Z1 would probably correspond to the impedance at the point of maximum power.

The points ZP and ZQ may be located on the graph by calculating the values of resistance and reactance of the inductor coil and its load when the article to be heated is at both the initial and the final temperature. Alternatively, the points ZP and ZQ may be located by measuring the resistance and value of the inductor coil and its load at the initial and final temperature, the

points then being plotted to any convenient scale in the graph. The angle a, which the line ZP-ZQ makes with the horizontal axis represents the rate of change of R1. and XL during the heating cycle. A diameter D of a circle C, representing the loci of the current through the inductor, should be drawn in from the origin 0 of the graph and disposed at an angle to the vertical axis the same as the angle a, as is conventional. The applied voltage E may be represented by a horizontal vector. The circle C has its center on this diameter and passes through the origin 0 of the graph and represents the loci of current for any point ZR along the line ZP-ZQ. The current vector is represented as In. As is conventional in graphical constructions of this kind, the angle on of the current vector IR is the same as the angle 0a of the impedance vector O-ZR. The horizontal components IR of the current vectors then represent the current in phase with the applied voltage E, which is assumed constant. It will be noted from Figure 6 that the in-phase or horizontal components I? and I corresponding to the points ZP and ZQ differ considerably, indicating the very wide range of power which may be delivered to the load at the beginning and end of the heating cycle clue to the inherent variation in the load impedance without this invention or with a reactance M of the improper value.

As pointed out heretofore, in order for the power delivered to the load at the beginning and the end of the heating cycle to be the same, it is necessary to have the horizontal or in-phase components of the currents I'P, IQ equal at the beginning and end of the heating cycle. It will be shown that a reactance M of the proper electrical value will effect this condition.

The effect of the reactance M in series with the inductor is to shift the line ZP-Z vertically on the graph to some new line ZP'-ZQ' which in Figure 6 is shown in the ultimate or desired position where the power delivered to the load is the same at the beginning and end of the heating cycle.

It will be observed that by shifting the line ZPZQ, the resultant effect is to shift or rotate the current vectors IP and I and accordingly vary the in-phase component 1's and I'd of the current IP and IQ. The number of amperes represented by one inch is of course different for vectors I'P, I and I'R than for IP, IQ and In. It will also be observed that at one position and one position only of the vectors 1?, IQ (shown as Ir, IQ) the in-phase components are equal and at this position the power input to the load at the beginning and end of the heating cycle will be equal. At this point it should be pointed out that the power delivered to the load is distinguished from the volt-amperes delivered to the load which may be quite high due to a poor power factor. The average power factor with the series condenser is improved although it will generally vary more widely during the heating cycle. Other means such as a variable reactor may be connected across the terminals of the power source to correct the power factor as seen by the power source.

Obviously, the line ZPZQ may be shifted by varying the resistance, the reactance, or both. If a resistance is introduced into the load circuit, power losses increase. This is undesirable. Accordingly, the present invention contemplates in.- troducing a reactive component having pref-erably negligible resistance losses into the load circuit, the effect of which is to shift the ZPZQ vertically to a new position ZP'ZQ'.

The amounts which the line ZP--ZQ should be shifted vertically may be determined by the trial and error method, wherein the line is arbitrarily relocated by a vertical movement (thu rotating the current vectors IP, I maintaining the angle a the same until a point is found wherein the horizontal components IP', I of the correspondingly shifted current vectors IP' and IQ are equal.

The scaled amount of vertical shift of the line ZPZQ from its original position represents the required'reactance of the reactor M to be supplied in the inductor circuit to accomplish the desired object of the invention. The reactance of the reactor M may be scaled off. In the line ZP-ZQ' is below the line ZPZQ, a capacitance must be used. If the line ZP'-ZQ' is above the line ZPZQ, inductance must be used. For induction heating circuits it has been found that,

as a'general rule,:a capacitance will be required.

The description of the invention has been? made on that basis.

A second method of determining the value of the corrective reaotance is by using the following formulae a W KM: Ll Ll L2 v"- R142 where: subscript 1 denotes conditions corresponding to maximum RL, subscript 2 denotes conditions corresponding to minimum RL, and

and E is the voltage of the power source.

If Xm is greater than Xnz, the plus sign applies in the expression for W, and a and b are between 0 and 90. If XLl were less than XL2, a and I) would be between 0 and 90 and the minus sign would apply'in the expression for W.

In the formulae above, W represents the power for a given generator voltage at which a load (having the specified values .of reactance and resistance at the beginning and end of the heatins cycle) can be made to accept equal power at the beginning and end of the .cycle. The formulae are stated in the above f-orm'so that the designer .iay know before determining the value of M, at what power for a given -EG he may achievethe desired unity power'ratio. If a greater or.less power is required, then'the number of turns in the inductor must be varied or .a transformer of the required turns ratio used. Simultaneously, the reactance XM of the reactor M is multiplied by'the same factor as R1. and XL. If this factor is the power is multiplied by l/k. Such procedures are conventional and well known in the art.

As will be obvious, where the actual power is unimportant so long as the ratio is unity, the formulae for X211 may be rewritten so-as to ob tain the value of X directly as follows:

From an examination of-Figure 6 it will be seen that as the impedance of the load changes during the heatingcycle, the new current vectors Ia will rotate from Ir" to IQ, the effect of which s to progressively but slightly increase and then decrease by the same amount the in-phase current vector I'n' during the heating cycle. This variation is slight and for all practical purposes it be said that the power input to the load is generally constant throughout the heating cycle.

It will be appreciated that the value of the reectance M may be determined experimentally h arbitrarily choosing values of reactance, putting them in the'heating circuit and running test cycles on the article to be heated until a value of reactance is'found which will accomplish the desired results.

'It is, of course, realized that capacitors have been placed in series with the load heretofore, but never with the objects in view or of the reactive value relative to the impedance variation of the load,as described herein.

"Figure 7 shows a completed induction heating circuit including a power source G and a power factor correcting capacitor H which mayor may not be made variable dependin on the degree of power-factor control required. It will be 'appre ciated that with the reactor M used according to this invention, the power factor will probably vary over rather widerranges than without the reactor.

It has been found that, using a reactance of a value as determined by one of the above methods, in series with the inductor of induction heating apparatus, the average instantaneous power delivered to the load could be raised to as high as 93% of the maximum power input to the work at any given instance, whereas, without the capacitor, the average input was around 77% of the maximum power input at any one time. This is a substantial improvement, permitting the power source to deliver power always at or near its maximum power rate without fear of overloading it on instantaneous peaks or during any portion of the heating cycle.

The results just referred to are illustrated graphically in Figure 8 wherein the power in kilowatts absorbed by the same load or workpiece with and without the present invention is plotted against the time in seconds in which the power is applied. Curve M shows the power input when the present invention is not employed and is conventional. Without the invention, the power varies from a maximum of 18 kilowatts to a minimum, constant and final value of 1D kilowatts. Curve 15 shows the results obtainable with the present invention. In this instance, the initial power was 18 kilowatts which dropped to 16 kilowatts and then varied between 17 and 16 kilowatts during the remainder of the heating cycle. In this instance, the curve 15 shown is somewhat less in length than the curve I 4 be cause, using the present invention, the load or workpiece reached the meltin point twenty seconds earlier than when the invention was not employed.

Thus it will seem that an electrical circuit embodying the present invention together with a method of determining the electrical constants of the elements which make up the circuit have been described which accomplishes the objects of the invention referred to above and others, an'd'that the circuit so conditions the load that the average instantaneous power delivered during the course of a heatin cycle may be substantially constant throughout the heating cycle, or the ratio of the power at the beginning and end of the cycle may be made as desired, and a power source having a given amount of an average power to be delivered to the load, may be of a minimum size for the power.

For the purposes of complying with the patent laws, 2. specific embodiment of the invention has been described. It will be appreciated, however, that various modifications, alterations, or other changes will occur to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of this specification. It 18 my intention to be protected as to all'such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claim. I

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

An inductive heating circuit, a source of power, an inductor connected to said source of power 9 10 and inductively coupled to an article to be heated, wherein the letters are as defined in the specifithe input impedance of which inductor changes cation.

during a heating cycle, means for compensating JAMES W. WILLIAMSON.

for the change in input impedance and causing a generally constant power flow during the heat- 5 REFERENCES CITED i c said means co prisi a cap ci o i The following references are of record in the series with said inductor and having an electrical file of thi patent:

value determined as follows: UNITED STATES PATENTS X =XL 10 Number Name Date 1,642,198 Gerth Sept. 13, 1927 R R R e 2 b 1,948,704 Fischer Feb. 27, 1934 m i an a an Rh= 2,511,026 Wadhams et a1. June 13, 1950 

